Criticised Over E-Wallet, Ministry of Hajj and Umrah Says Governance Could Involve Associations

The discourse on implementing an e-wallet system for umrah travel, initiated by Indonesia’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, remains at the discussion and study phase. The ministry has stressed that the idea emerged as an effort to strengthen protection for umrah pilgrims from potential fraud or misuse of funds by irresponsible travel operators. Director of Special Hajj and Umrah at the ministry, Akhmad Fauzin, stated that no decision has yet been made regarding the implementation of the umrah e-wallet. Therefore, various inputs from associations and umrah travel businesses will form part of the policy review process. ‘The e-wallet is still a discourse, so it is still under review. Its implementation requires further study,’ Fauzin said when asked for his response on Thursday. According to him, the e-wallet concept arose as a solution to provide better protection for pilgrims. He noted that there have been cases where pilgrims’ rights were neglected due to the actions of travel operators failing to fulfil their obligations. ‘This is a solution to provide protection for pilgrims, whose rights are often neglected by rogue travel agents. Hence, the e-wallet idea emerged as a barrier to mitigate fraud that harms pilgrims,’ he stated. Previously, several associations of Hajj and Umrah travel organisers criticised the e-wallet proposal. They assessed that the system could potentially make umrah governance increasingly centralistic and might create obstacles in the payment process to vendors and service partners in Saudi Arabia. Responding to these concerns, Fauzin emphasised that the e-wallet management scheme is still very open for discussion. In fact, according to him, the possibility of the system’s governance directly involving umrah organiser associations or travel companies is not ruled out. ‘Because it is still a discourse, it is possible that the e-wallet governance could be managed by the association,’ he said.